My Classmate is 200 Million Years Old - Chapter 147
After her lessons ended the next day, Xuan Mo was told to head over to the research building during her lunch break. A new name plaque had been hung up on the research building, it was now called the Golden Stone Building.
Workers’ dormitories, office and data storage rooms occupied the lower floors. The top floor, the level that Zhao Jing Lei had brought Xuan Mo around when she first visited, was designated mainly for research purposes.
Main researcher Yi Fei’s assistant Kang Qiao found Xuan Mo a small space in the corner of the room. Awkward at the arrangement, he explained again and again: “So sorry about this, you came in pretty late and all the spaces are filled, I really don’t mean to make light of you or anything like that.”
In fact, to a certain extent, even though he hadn’t seen for himself what Xuan Mo was capable of, he should be looking up to Xuan Mo. After all this wasn’t your average research centre, you won’t be here if your abilities weren’t of a certain standard. There was no such thing as a backdoor here for one to pull strings to join.
Xuan Mo didn’t sit down. Her office desk was empty, and that didn’t help her one bit — she still had no idea what she was supposed to do. And so, she asked: “I missed the mission briefing right.”
Kang Qiao dawned: “Right, you did!” He asked carefully, “you do know what this research is about do you!”
No one told her anything so far, but she’d already observed and figured out what’s happening on her own. At that, Xuan Mo shrugged: “No one told me anything.”
“Aye, sorry about that.” Kang Qiao immediately ran over to his own desk and brought over a thick stack of documents. “These are all the documents that my security level can clear, you can take a look first. Do ask me if you have any questions, I’ll try my best to answer you.”
Xuan Mo took the documents and placed them by the side. Her mental powers could overlay itself on all the machines in the entire research centre; she’d be able to figure out everything by then — both the things she should know and the things she shouldn’t know.
Xuan Mo had no classes in the afternoon. She heard that the research subject was going to be transferred over, so she pretended to flip through the documents so that she could stay around for a while.
Half an hour later, even the atmosphere in the research centre felt heavy. Finally, the research subject was sent over.
The subject with the code name “Golden Stone” is a metallic item the size of a fist. It looked like a stone from afar, but it was made of a man-made material never before seen.
The unknown origins of this subject, its ancient, enigmatic pattern, and the strange energy reaction had the researchers that had worked on this material fraught with elation.
“If it weren’t for the other countries’ intervention, if it weren’t for the lack of technology, if it weren’t for the fact that this research was so resource-intensive and we have already made too many sacrifices, if we continued this research, this might just revolutionise our lives!” Yi Fei stood in the frontmost row, exclaiming as he pointed at the golden stone in the glass cabinet. “Since you guys have decided to continue with us, please always hold dear your passion and your motivation that made you join us in the very beginning, and give it your very best! We are going to show all those against us what we’ve got! In Country Z, the power of people is unimaginable!”
“Yes!” The young researchers replied with enthusiastic applause.
Xuan Mo looked at the golden stone. It wasn’t the same as the one she’d seen through the security camera the other time. Seemed like the sacrifice that Zhao Jing Lei had mentioned previously was not without benefits. This piece of metal was of the same origins however: it had entered into this world with Elge space warp technology through particle separation, in other words, this medium was also known as a galaxy gateway.
“Let’s not wait any longer, let’s start now then, please abide by the rules and regulations, don’t try to push any boundaries here, thank you.” After Yi Fei was done, he returned to his desk. There was no need for him to elaborate further, the majority had been with the research since the beginning after all, only a handful joined halfway through. They’ve only paused the research for a while before resuming again, so there’s not been much changes either.
Yi Fei looked at his computer, before he realised that he still had a jobless assistant beside him. When he looked up and saw Xuan Mo staring at the stone in a daze, he rubbed his temples, vexed. He walked over: “Xuan Mo, you can follow Kang Qiao, he is my assistant, he can help you out and show you around.”
Xuan Mo shook her head and pointed at the golden stone: “I wanna see.”
“You want to take a look? There is an electronic viewer outside the cabinet, you can adjust it to zoom in and out, and you can look at the subject from any angle.”
“…I want to touch it.”
“Touch?” Yi Fei frowned. While the cabinet glass seemed harmless, the walls weren’t easily maneuverable or adjustable. Currently all the relevant organisations and groups who wanted a piece of cake would have gotten their hands on a specimen, but that didn’t mean that they would be satisfied with what they already have. As such, the centre has made sufficient anti-theft preparations to guard this subject. Even opening the cabinet would be very troublesome. “If you just want to check how the material feels like, we have an extracted specimen there, you can check it out while referring to all the research data and related information we have so far.”
Xuan Mo was speechless for a moment before asking: “I want a circuit board to conduct electricity, but you give me the corner of a circuit board — what’s the point?”
Yi Fei blinked, asking suddenly: “Circuit board?”
“Enh.” Xuan Mo continued looking at the stone.
“Circuit board?”
“…” Xuan Mo slanted him a weirded gaze.
A frenzied agitation seemed to have suddenly taken over Yi Fei: “Circuit board, circuit board… electric circuit! Pattern!”
He jumped: “Those patterns, are they something like an electric circuit? It is isn’t it, why didn’t I realise this sooner! No wonder, no wonder it lights up, but the light is not evenly spread out… can it conduct electricity, it doesn’t seem to be able to, or can it?”
As the idea came to mind, he immediately went ahead with it; he didn’t even have the time to spare Xuan Mo another moment. Yi Fei turned and started shouting for people to open the cabinet. He called over the other researchers and started pitter-pattering away about his earlier theory. At his words, the crowd of researchers were in an uproar. A few of them turned to look at Xuan Mo to give her a thumbs up.
This perspective had actually flitted across the minds of quite a number of them. However, the pattern on this metallic object looked way too primitive. In fact, the object looked so much like an artefact that almost half their team was made up of archaeologists and relevant literature researchers. Xuan Mo’s articulated opinion was only just another hypothetical perspective that came into the limelight during their current bottleneck period.
Xuan Mo on the other hand knew that her hypothesis wasn’t just a hypothesis; what she had pointed out earlier was the correct research direction. As to how to accurately leverage on that, that was the blue planet being’s business. Frankly speaking, she’d never gone into how to use the vitality that humans possess either. This kind of technology seemed to scale in efficiency with the intelligence of the species and its biological capabilities.
When she figured that everyone was too occupied to care about her, Xuan Mo strolled out the room. As she did, her phone suddenly rang, it was from her mother.
